Monday, March 02, 2009

4 YEARS OF SAME HAT!

I had lost track of the date at some point, but yesterday I realized that this weekend marks the four year anniversary of Same Hat! How crazy is that?

I distinctly remember pitching the idea of a blog covering weirdo manga to Evan back in 2005, and our feverish work on those initial scanlation strips by Yoshida Sensha. I had just graduated college and was looking for a place to talk with friends about weirdo manga... and have an excuse to use my Japanese degree for something non-evil. Now, 405 posts later, the site's focus has morphed and shifted since the very early days, but I hope we're still going strong.



I wanted to take a second to sincerely thank everyone who has been reading and commenting and emailing since we started. I think of Same Hat as a community more than as simply my blog, and I couldn't ask for a better vehicle for meeting awesome people and learning about cool books, artists, and assorted weirdness from around the globe. Thanks also to everyone for putting up with side-projects and diversions I post here, like the zine, Evan's photography work and other random projects.

To add a little something to this post (other than me waxing nostalgically and getting all teary-eyed), here are a few blasts from the pasts from the Same Hat archive. In the coming weeks (month or so?) I'm gonna work with Evan and friends to launch a proper site on samehat.com, which will include easier browsing of old posts, along with a home for the Same Hat Guide To Everything and other community features. In the meanwhile, enjoy these nuggets:

+ The ORIGINAL Yoshida Sensha strip that launched the site and gave us our name. [link]
+ Subsequently, fan parodies of the ORIGINAL Yoshida Sensha strip! [link] & [link]
+ A massive & ultimate English guide to Umezz's website [link]
+ Our first ever Suehiro Maruo fan scanlation... [link]
+ Long-ass treatise on Junji Ito, Dark Horse and the state of horror manga in 2006 [link]
+ Photographs of the first American Edition of Japanese Manga [link]
+ Our final scanlation from 2007, The Young Bandit by Yoshida Sensha [link]
+ Evan and my first original comic together: THE BIBLE! [link]
+ Umezu-style guide to horror manga makeup [link]

I hope folks continue to dig what I'm doing here (and the manga projects that Evan and I are working on) for coming months and... years!? If there's a specific type of thing you would like to see more of on the site, I wanna hear about it! More text-heavy essay posts? Highlights of different artists or specific series? More of Nate, SH's man-in-Japan? Just let me know and I'll work to make it happen. The site ain't shit without you guys, the readers!

21 comments:

zytroop said...

Congrats, keep it up!

jimpac said...

Happy birthday same hat!!!???!!!

Some great links to some old posts there. Especially the guide to the Umezu site... Umezu ringtones!?! Sweet!

Personally, I appreciate everything you put up here so just keep doing whatever you feel like doing, as it seems to be working!
I would like to see a post on Tacoche, I'm sure you promised one yonks ago. Those photos of Mandarake you put up a few months back had me watering at the mouth!

Obviously it would be good to see some more scanlations but I take it that won't be happening?

Eoin Marron said...

Happy birthday lads, here's to
the next few years of Same Hat! :D

I imagine this year will be quite an exciting one for you guys...

Azraelito said...

felicitaciones... is something like congratulations!!

so FELICITACIONES..

a very nice place to read and to see that there is another point of view in comics!!

keep up the good work and more miyaya kazuhiko please .D

saludos from argentina to you and evan!!!

Anonymous said...

congrats! i love u guys <3

Ryan S said...

@Zytroop: Thanks for reading and for all the comments of the years. I'm in it for the long haul with this here blog.

@jimpac & eoin: Thanks for the kind words, dude. I'm glad to be part of the indie manga blogger scence with you guys.

The idea of a TacoChe post is a good one.. I did promise it, you're right! I queued up photos on a flickr to post, but never got around to it. I have about 80 from the shop of different toys, shirts, and book covers, so I'll try to whittle those down and post by the weekend.

Eoin, you are correct-- The Young Bandit was planned as our last scanlation, and Evan and I are spending our time on licensed work going forward (and the zine, etc). Of course, it's way faster to turn scanlations around and post them, but working with a publisher like Last Gasp provides the best and most rewarding opportunity to get weird stuff out there to a wide audience. And 2009 and 2010 has some weird stuff in store :)

@Azraelito: As always, thanks for all the comments and support! I really love all the comments and info you provide, and look forward to talking about more cool comics in 2009.

@m: aw damn, thanks! right back at you@!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I can't add anything more than the folks here, but I really appreciate your blog and it remains one of my favourites out of any blog EVER. Your enthusiasm is infectious and I've discovered loads of great books through you, so keep it up!

lostphrack said...

Congrats guys!

Ryan S said...

@Hige: thanks dude, that means a lot!

@lostphrack: Great to hear from you, thanks!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Same Hat! ("S-same hat...", "Same hat?" lol!)

This is definetly my favorite mangá-horror-nonsense blog. Still remember the first time I found the site, googling about Junji Ito. Keep the great work Ryan & Evan!

Ryan S said...

@Okada: Thanks for reading! I appreciate all the comments and discussions you've been a part of over the months :)

Anonymous said...

Congrats Same Hat!
Viva la weirdness!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday SAME HAT! SAME HAT!

I would LOVE to read an uber essay on Tokyo Zombie. How you guys got to work on it, how different/similar it was to scanlations, etc. etc. A post-mortem, if you will. :3

Ryan S said...

@Sengitron: Thanks for reading!

@Zombot: Thanks :) A post-mortem on the process of making Tokyo Zombie? If folks would find that interesting, I'd be happy to work on something like that.

JE said...

Congratulations! Good luck on the zine as well.

Hopefully more eclectic stuff gets an official release in English via your efforts.

Ryan S said...

@JE: Thanks dude, much appreciated. I can't to be able to tell you guys about the new book later this year.

jimpac said...

I'd definitely be interested in reading an article about the work you and Evan put into producing a version of Tokyo Zombie for western readers.
I've always been interested in the processes that go into translating manga for non-Japanese readers so getting the lowdown from someone who has worked in that industry would be highly illuminating.

Unknown said...

Oh my God, 2005 was four years ago? I'm so depressed.

Ryan S said...

@anthony ha: I know, right? It's crazy. I am a big fan of even numbered years, btw

ejiki said...

Happy birthday

Ryan S said...

@Baka: Thanks!